The year Colin Kaepernick went from QB pariah to social activist

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49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick ignited a national conversation this year by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem to protest racism and oppression in America. (Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images)

Colin Kaepernick started 2016 one step out of football. By the year’s end, one calculatedly placed knee had made him the most polarizing and influential figure in sports.

His journey from quarterback pariah to social activist has become one of the most compelling stories in an America divided by the contentious victory of president-elect Donald Trump.

A 49ers quarterback who previously had little to say has left an indelible mark simply by kneeling during the playing of the national anthem to protest police violence against unarmed African-Americans.

Kaepernick, 29, might not be headed to Canton and the Pro Football Hall of Fame after struggling on the field with one of the NFL’s worst teams. But venerated sports sociologist Harry Edwards lobbied for his inclusion into the Smithsonian’s new National Museum of African American History and Culture.

“If he did nothing else but what he has managed to achieve, he belongs in the Smithsonian right next to Muhammad Ali, right next to Tommy Smith and John Carlos, right next to Arthur Ashe and Jim Brown and Bill Russell,” said Edwards, a UC Berkeley professor emeritus who lives in Fremont. “Right next to all of those trailblazers who came through the locker room door in an effort to advance and enlighten us all.”

The quarterback Time magazine put on its cover has borrowed a page from the outspoken athletes of the 1960s in publicly protesting against racism and oppression and rejecting the Michael Jordan mantra that Republicans buy shoes too.

Even his choice of an Afro hairstyle was bold.

When his actions began to get noticed in late summer the 49ers stood behind their quarterback. But the protest engendered as much ridicule as praise, particularly from those who say he disrespects the military when kneeling.

Trump said Kaepernick should “find a country that works better for him.” In October, U.S. Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called the protest “dumb” and “disrespectful” but then expressed regret when Kaepernick earnestly defended himself against her commentary.

President Barack Obama addressed the situation in different settings while the admiral who heads the U.S. Pacific Command referred to the player’s protest derisively during a speech to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor.

But a man who earned a business management degree at Nevada-Reno never wavered no matter who challenged him.

“All Kap did was not stand up,” said Todd Boyd, a USC professor of critical studies. “It is a passive act. The response has been aggressive to it.”

It seemed the quarterback from Turlock became the object of contempt from many quarters in America. Even some who support the message against police brutality soured on the messenger because Kaepernick didn’t vote in the November election. The disappointment multiplied when the Sacramento Bee reported he has never registered to vote.

“It was woefully disappointing that he sends an implicit message that actions only need to be symbolic in nature,” said Dave Moren, Bay Area leader of civic engagement group Generation Citizen. “It’s rather counterproductive and demoralizing when somebody throws the entire ballot out of the window because they don’t agree with who is running for president when there are so many other state and local measures” on social injustice issues that Kaepernick might support.

The backlash didn’t surprise Stanford professor Clayborne Carson, director of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research & Education Institute. One of the country’s foremost scholars on King understands the visceral reaction to the quarterback’s decision not to vote. At 19, Carson attended the King-led March on Washington in 1963.

“From the very beginning his protest has been idiosyncratic in that he didn’t ask anyone, he didn’t discuss it with anyone,” the historian said. “That’s his privilege to be able to go his own way to make a statement.”

Some of the negative responses were perhaps understandable for the simple fact that Kaepernick, previously best known for tattoos with biblical messages, had never publicly engaged in serious political discourse. He was a once-promising multiple-purpose quarterback who inspired the phrase “Kaepernicking,” the act of kissing his bicep in celebration of a big play.

Then he became a cautionary tale of a quarterback who lost his effectiveness after leading the 49ers to the 2013 Super Bowl.

Edwards said if he had to “pick one individual who would achieve what all the talking heads and the politicians and everybody else since the 1960s” failed to do — to start a serious, honest conversation about race and racism in America — “Kaepernick would be the last guy I would think would have that kind of capacity.”

The protest initially spearheaded similar demonstrations across the country by high school and women professional basketball and soccer players. It got America talking even as police shootings continued.

Kaepernick didn’t just take a weekly stand before NFL games. He pledged to donate $1 million plus all of the proceeds from his jersey sales this year to groups working in oppressed communities. His website Kaepernick7.com is dedicated to the campaign.

The quarterback gave $25,000 each to Silicon Valley De-Bug, a media, community organizing, and social entrepreneurial collective based in San Jose, and Causa Justa/Just Cause in Oakland.

De-Bug coordinator Raj Jayadev said Kaepernick’s unsolicited gift came as a welcomed surprise in the fall. But the families De-Bug worked with who have lost loved ones to police shootings already felt empowered by the football player’s symbolic actions. To them, it showed someone cared, Jayadev said.

“The reality is he’s one of these people in the historical moment who shows up and says essentially, ‘We are better than this,’ ” Edwards said.

But as the NFL moved into the winter and the NBA season began Kaepernick seemed like an island in keeping the conversation alive. The initial groundswell tapered off.

Ty Douglas, a University of Missouri education professor commissioned by the NCAA to study the black male athlete experience at his school, thinks he knows why.

“It is offensive to many because he is interrupting the solemnity and the worship experience that is the NFL,” he said. “His protest is seen as almost sacrilege.”

USC’s Boyd added that many fans reject the notion of the activist athlete.

“They see athletes as avatars,” the professor said. “Or people in fantasy sports. The first step we’re at is this generation of athletes isn’t going to be so readily silenced.”

Seattle Seahawks receiver Doug Baldwin, one of the most vocal NFL players with Kaepernick, said many of his teammates are frustrated by how difficult it is to make progress to end racism.

“They don’t know the next steps,” the Stanford alumnus told Sports Illustrated. “They feel hopeless, and I don’t discount that. … There have been points where I said, ‘OK, screw it; I can’t do this anymore.’ But that’s a trap. That’s (how we got on) the path we’ve been going down.”

John Wooten, an NFL veteran who has been at the forefront of getting the league to hire minority coaches, wishes more would join Kaepernick and Baldwin in speaking up. But the Fritz Pollard Alliance chairman also counsels current players to follow their hearts.

“Just do what is right,” said Wooten, 79. “That’s what this whole thing is about.”